The Brady Gang, Part 2

The Brady Gang, Part 2

October 16, 2014

Gun battles, police chases, and a jailbreak—these are the makings of one of the most intense manhunts in the history of American crime.

Audio Transcript

Mollie Halpern: Gun battles, police chases, and a jailbreak—these are the makings of one of the most intense manhunts in the history of American crime. I’m Mollie Halpern of the FBI, and this is Gotcha, the Bureau’s closed case of the week. The case begins in the month of October back in 1936, when the Brady Gang broke out of an Indiana jail and sped away in a stolen car. On their trail was a special squad of so-called G-Men.

John Fox: The flying squads, as we called them, that would go after the gangsters.

Halpern: That was FBI Historian John Fox. Police from multiple states were also after the Brady bandits, who were accused of murdering a police officer, robbing about 150 stores, and transporting their stolen goods across state lines.

The gang managed to elude the law for one year. They lived peacefully in Baltimore but carried out their crimes in the Midwest.

Fox: And so it was hard to figure out where they were.

Halpern: Eventually the U.S. attorney general offered a $1,500 reward for information leading to the arrest of the Brady gang. On the next Gotcha, how the FBI got its man.